The Economic Cost of Diet and Its Association with Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in a Cohort of Spanish Primary Schoolchildren

Rosario Pastor, Noemi Pinilla and Josep A. Tur
Additional contact information
Rosario Pastor: Research Group on Community Nutrition and Oxidative Stress, IUNICS, University of the Balearic Islands, E-07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Noemi Pinilla: Faculty of Health Sciences, Catholic University of Avila, 05005 Avila, Spain
Josep A. Tur: Research Group on Community Nutrition and Oxidative Stress, IUNICS, University of the Balearic Islands, E-07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-10

Abstract: Background : Adoption of a certain dietary pattern is determined by different factors such as taste, cost, convenience, and nutritional value of food. Objective : To assess the association between the daily cost of a diet and its overall quality in a cohort of 6–12-year-old Spanish schoolchildren. Methods : A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a cohort ( n = 130; 47% female) of 6–12-year-old children schooled in primary education in the central region of Spain. Three-day 24 h records were administered, and the nutritional quality of the diet was also determined by means of Mediterranean Adequacy Index (MAI). A questionnaire on sociodemographic data, frequency of eating in fast-food restaurants, and supplement intake were also recorded. The person responsible for the child’s diet and the schooler himself completed the questionnaires, and homemade measures were used to estimate the size of the portions. Food prices were obtained from the Household Consumption Database of the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The economic cost of the diet was calculated by multiplying the amount in grams of the food consumed by each child by the corresponding price in grams and adding up the total amount for each participant. The total economic cost of the diet was calculated in €/day and in €/1000 kcal/day. Results : The area under the curve (AUC) for €/day and €/1000 kcal/day represent 62.6% and 65.6%, respectively. According to AUC values, adherence to Mediterranean diet (MD) is a moderate predictor of the monetary cost of the diet. A direct relationship between the cost of the diet and the adherence to MD was observed [OR (€/1000 kcal/day) = 3.012; CI (95%): 1.291; 7.026; p = 0.011]. Conclusions : In a cohort of Spanish schoolchildren with low adherence to the MD, a higher cost of the diet standardized to 1000 kcal was associated with above-average MAI values.

Keywords: diet quality; Mediterranean diet; Mediterranean Adequacy Index; monetary cost (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1282/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1282/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:3:p:1282-:d:490598

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().